Firefox Add-on of the Week: Ghostery

Boo. That's exactly what the various advertising networks on the Internet are saying to one another as they possess your browsing experience without your knowledge. Okay, so the situation isn't that grim--it's not as if the various Web tracking services and advertising networks are typing strange messages into your search boxes or sending you off to arcane locations via your address bar. Still, nobody likes the feeling like their activities are being looked at.

And that's where the Firefox add-on Ghostery comes into the picture. Like Casper, this friendly little ghost-themed program does an excellent job of showing you exactly who's tuning in to your Web activity. But that's not all--this extension does a bit more than just notify you of the fellow spooks in the room.

When you load up a page and Ghostery detects tracking scripts, a little pop-up box appears in your browsing window. You can click to ignore it or just sit it out--the box will disappear after 15 seconds have elapsed, although you can change this value in the add-ons configuration menu. You can also access Ghostery's other big feature via this config screen: tracker blocking. If you don't want certain services from seeing what you're up to on the Web (with more than 200 different services to choose from, mind you), you can block them from your browser with but a few clicks of the mouse.

Ghostery also promises a Web-based tool for learning more information about the various trackers it... tracks... as well as the popularity of the tracker across the Internet at-large and contact details for the associated company. As of this article's writing, however, Ghostery's site was completely down. Hopefully that's just a minor fluke and not an indication that this ghost has been busted for good--it's just too useful an add-on (even rivaling that of NoScript) to pass up!

Maximum PC picks one new Firefox add-on as its favorite of the week each... week. Have a nifty extension that you can't live without? Twitter David Murphy @acererak with your latest suggestions.